Greg Sanders

Review: Code of the Woosters, P.G. Wodehouse

This was my first Wodehouse book and it was a reasonable starting point to the Jeeves and Wooster stories. It was a fairly quick read and in my view really got going around page 100 as the action came to a head, specifically as a painting was used for some fairly ineffective head-cracking. The zaniness continued largely unabated from that point onward, which did heighten my enjoyment as the relentlessness of the plotting meant that the underlying absurdity of the problems was overwhelmed by the urgency of dealing with them.  I enjoyed the whole thing, although I fear my comparatively weak background in the western canon meant that I was missing how some of the classical quotes were being tweaked. My only real takeaway about the culture being described was a curiosity about whether the characters' willingness to prank the police was primarily an upper-class thing or whether it reflects differences between British and American culture. Cops are often buffoons in American comedies, but characters don't go around stealing their hats or the like unless avenging a particular slight. Come to think of it, more than anything else the attitude reminds me of that of the Phoenix Wright games.

I'll run down the rest of my book backlog  before returning to the series, but I do have definite hopes that the humor of the series will be cumulative as I get to know the characters better. I often end up turned off by series that revolve around the suffering of a foolish main character, but Wooster is shown to have a healthy dose of humanity and wit if not wisdom.

Source: Recommended by Andrew and Monica, loaned to me by my father-in-law; thanks all.

This blog opposes the Stop Online Piracy Act

 

For reasons why, look to Ezra Klein's interview with Sen. Ron Wyden. The whole interview is worth reading, but here are key excerpts:

EK: What makes PIPA and SOPA cluster bombs? If you agree there is a problem, why aren’t these acceptable solutions?

RW: PIPA and SOPA, at their heart, are censorship bills and blacklisting bills, and they undermine much of the architecture of the internet…  What the bills do is say, when you get a court order, you can’t use the domain-name system to resolve to the IP address.

EK; When you say “resolve to the IP address,” exactly what that means. Let’s say I run EzraTube.com. And someone has uploaded copyrighted content to my site. What happens next?

RW: When you type EzraTube.com into your browser, your browser is asking Comcast to ask other servers where that goes. These servers basically act as phonebooks. What the so-called “DNS remedy” in the bill does is enable the attorney general to get a court order that tells Comcast, ‘when people want to find EzraTube.com, don’t send them there. Send them to a Department of Justice site instead.’ People who want to work around this would be able to. There are already third-party tools that use foreign servers or other domain-name servers outside of Comcast’s network. But that’s a problem because, for the last 15 years, we’ve spent all this time building the DNS system into a secure standard…

EK: As I understand it, another element of these bills is that they would move the burden of policing content to the Web sites themselves. Right now, YouTube, if alerted to pirated content, needs to get it down. Under SOPA and PIPA, YouTube would be responsible for making sure it never goes up in the first place, and liable if they missed a video.

RW: You are describing what I call the “turn Web sites into Web cops” provision. This is a provision that has raised concern about what this is going to mean for innovation. If you’re a small Web site trying to get off the ground and you look at that provision, you put people through this kind of legal burden, which will mean a significant amount of money for anyone trying something new, it will do a lot of damage to innovation. That’s one reason the venture capital folks are speaking out.

[Update: Now's a good day to contact your member of Congress. Probably no need to send more than a polite sentence or two or use a form letter, I'm guessing numbers matter more than the specific message at this point. In Maryland, Sen. Cardin at least seems to be responding to SOPA/PIPA concerns.]

Programming note: Since this is a typepad blog and not a wordpress one, I don't see a quick and easy way to down it entirely [and frankly my readership is relatively small so I'm focusing on a call to action rather than get the tech right.]. So this post is my means of solidarity.

What’s an anti-interventionist liberal’s alternative to Paul?

Over at L'Hôte, Freddie argues that the argument over Rep. Ron Paul’s weaknesses has been used as a distraction from the larger critique of American interventions. Robert Farley pushes back some on the specific Indonesian example Freddie raises. While I’m generally anti-occupation I’m not an anti-interventionist, but I think it’s important to keep them part of the discussion.

I’d first like to note a point of disagreement with the post.

Left wing politicians like Bernie Sanders and Dennis Kucinich have embraced discussion of foreign policy and civil liberties, and for their trouble they have been dismissed as unserious by the self-same progressives who now dismiss Ron Paul's ideas…

I do think Rep. Kucinich does tend to be dismissed, but I don't think discussing Sen. Sanders (no relation) is taboo. Ezra Klein interviewed him in August of 2011. Admittedly Klein interviews many politicians, but in May of 2011 he posted video of Sen. Sanders smacking down Sen. Rand Paul. In June of 2011 Klein argued that the moderation of Sen. Sanders proposals, compared to Republican extremism, shows that the national debate is imbalanced. The Senator from Vermont appears to appreciate Klein's work and cited him from the floor of the Senate in June(Source: Fishbowl D.C.). Now that’s just Ezra Klein and is in a domestic context, so perhaps the specific objection is that Sen. Sanders foreign policy views aren’t really discussed.

That objection aside, the question Freddie raises at the end is well worth addressing:

I want those who profess belief in liberalism and egalitarianism to recognize that they are failing those principles every time they ignore our conduct overseas, or ridicule those who criticize it. What I will settle for is an answer to the question: what would they have us do? If you can't find it in you to accept our premises, at least consider what you would do if you did. For those of us who oppose our country's destructive behavior, there is no place to turn that does not result in ridicule…

I think the solution is primary challenges for members of Congress. Matt Yglesias and Freddie have disagreed about this point before but I think the key argument for congressional challenges is that they have a proven track record. The various conservative groups that now make up the Tea Party make regular use of primary challenges and have been rewarded with increasing ideological consistency in Republican Party.

This isn’t to say they haven’t overreached and cost the Republican party seats, it’s a tactic with clear limits. However, I think the experience on the Republican side, see the 1992 election, also indicates that Congressional challenges are far less likely to backfire than Presidential ones. Working on getting state government elected officials is generally a good idea but obviously isn’t that helpful for shifting foreign policy.

I think clear and enforceable red lines are another fairly effective technique. This means picking certain issues where disagreeing with your group means denial of funding or even actively supporting a replacement candidate. Part of the reason there’s such strong pushback against Rep. Paul is that he impressively manages to violate the redlines of almost every member of the liberal coalition. In the 2008 election, I’d say the anti-interventionist made fairly effective use of support for the Iraq war as a redline issue which is part of what got President Obama the nomination. I think that electoral effort deserves part of the credit for the fact that we’re did comply with our treaties and withdrawal the U.S. military (if not contractors) from Iraq.

This is actually an area where a fair amount of popular support is potentially available as both the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan lost popular support well before they lost elite support. Dan Drezner has argued that realism rather than liberal internationalism has more support among the American populace. To be sure, realism is not primarily concerned with preventing U.S. complicity in overseas violence but it is fairly consistently anti-interventionist in a way that does check liberal and neocon hawkery. I’d advise finding one or two policy statements that have support from a strong majority or vehement plurality in a fair number of states or Congressional districts. The anti-war movement probably doesn’t have the clout to raise their own challengers, but such criteria, if publicly applied, could help leverage existing resources by targeting them all at one race.

I think it would also be fair to withhold funding from any candidates, including President Obama, that violate your redlines. While I do have some strong objections to some of President Obama’s actions on civil liberties and foreign policy, I’m still willing to donate to him. However, I think redirecting donations of time or money away from a sitting Presidential candidate, even in a tough race, is a perfectly valid tactic for anti-interventionists. We all have to pick priorities.

Restaurant Review: East Moon in Columbia MD

East Moon Asian Bistro is a local chain serving a mix of Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese food. We've been to the Columbia location twice and were pleased with our meals both times, as were family and friends that went separately. I particularly liked the way they handled their modernist décor, a neat mix of art with a colorful theme and only a moderate visual distraction if you're facing in the direction of the bar and thus a few televisions.

The first time we went for entrees, the second sushi. I'd say the entrees seem to be their strong point; I had pad se lew and Kate had the lemon grass chicken. Quite tasty and substantial for prices in the low teens. Tonight, the sushi was reasonable, we both left satisfied and I particularly liked their Tokyo roll. However, if you're dining in Howard county you have a rather wide selection of sushi restaurants and we're likely to stick with Hanamura or Yama Sushi as our default traditional and fancy place respectively. For the record, East Moon is more in the fancy camp and does a good job with the appearance of their platters.

So if you want an affordable restaurant that provides a mix of Asian cuisines, I'd say East Moon fits the bill. I'm not sure how well they handle larger groups, but from a price perspective you really can't go wrong if you bring more people and split a smaller number of their big dishes.

[Updated to add photo.]

Review: Whisper of the Heart

I'd long been curious about this Ghibli film (not by headliner Hayao Miyazaki) and this winter, on a trip with family and friends, I finally had the chance to see it. A middle school love story, it should be enjoyable for all audiences but probably is best for kids interested in creative expression, their parents, and adults considering following their muse. The reason I make that recommendation is that combining idealistic advice with pragmatic considerations is a hallmark of Ghibli films. It also makes an effective introduction to anime, as the older generation in the audience hadn't seen much but liked it.

I specifically liked how the film dealt with undercurrents of class and high stakes testing in a realistic but not heavy handed manner. Chasing artistic dreams did mean lower test scores and this was treated as a real trade off. In addition, the different levels of effort the two main characters had put into their art could be traced back in part to their different backgrounds and not just their level of industriousness. Parenting style also made a difference but even the approaches the filmmakers likely approved of were shown to have ups and downs. The film makes no bones about the fact that art can be hard work and that  even after you put in that work it may not payoff and certainly will require polish.

With obvious selfish motivation, I'd be fairly curious to see what the creators take on adults in a similar positions would be. I'll have to check what else they've done.

Finally, I'll just note that I loved the 'concrete roads' version of 'country roads take me home.'

Source: Borrowed from Kate, thanks Kate!

Quickie review: Indie RPG buying

Both Indie Press Revolution (IPR) and Evil Hat are good places to get a variety of Indie RPGs and unlike many other sources will often include a PDF at the same cost as a print purchase. In both cases I went with the low end shipping option.

With Indie Press Revolution I placed the order on 12/16, got the PDFs nigh instantly, shipping notification email received 12/20, and it arrived via media mail on 1/4. 

With Evil Hat I placed the order on 12/16 as well, got the PDFs nigh instantly, I got the shipping notification email on 12/20, but the package arrived on 12/21.

When I checked in with the Indie Press Revolution guys, they were fairly responsive and apparently it had accidentally been sent media mail by USPS rather than UPS (or priority mail with USPS). So apparently the length of the delay was a fluke, although in any event they didn't send tracking info which has been sadly reminiscent of the bad old days of having no idea when a package would arrive.

I'm up for using IPR again, but for now I'm definitely going to err towards Evil Hat on future orders if time is at all sensitive. Particularly since the interface is a bit less glitchy in the later case.

Impressions: In the Loop

Perhaps surprisingly, satire isn't really my genre. Nonetheless, I did enjoy In the Loop, a film take on the British series In the Thick of It, which I still have yet to see and really should.

The film covers the period of the lead-in to the Iraq War and thus unsurprisingly depicts a steady series of failures of politics. There's a fair range of personalities, none of whom cover themselves in glory, but who generally manage to ring true. The film also has an interesting comparative politics angle, as it looks at executive branch politics on the U.S. side while looking at the parliamentary politics angle on the British side.

Perhaps one of the better uses of the film is to better prepare ambitious naïfs to as to what they might be getting into. The title gets to the core challenge: staying in the loop, particularly if your tradecraft needs work, has high costs. The petty compromises the characters fall prey to are far more pervasive than even the commonly-depicted adulterous affairs of candidates, let alone the overly complex conspiracy theories of most political thrillers.

On the downside, the film certainly did not leave my wife feeling favorably inclined to my field of study or industry, but again, it's a film about the lead-up to the Iraq War; we know how that one turns out.

Review: Assassin's Creed 2

I'm well-suited to the core gameplay concept of Assassin's Creed: it's a sandbox where you get to use major historical city, in this case primarily Florence and Venice, as your own parkour playground. I'm not actually so keen on the Assassin part, but there's enough fun running, climbing, racing, and exploring to keep me interested.  Speed and stealth are both fairly effective ways to avoid combat and in a pinch you can always beat someone up with your fists, although it's fairly tedious.

The game wasn't particularly hard. I never really got frustrated although as a downside I didn't always feel challenged. I've yet to finish the puzzle-oriented 'truth' unlocking session but I'm likely to soon enough. Similarly, one of the biggest delights of the series is climbing up to high points and looking around and I've got about a half dozen viewpoints left to find. I can live with games that are this forgiving; I think the key is trying to play with style rather than simply achieving your objectives. The dialog feedback from passersby and the notoriety system both do a reasonable job of docking you if you get too sloppy.

Assassin's Creed probably won't make my all time top 10, but I think the gameplay in many ways takes some of the mechanics of Thief while making them a lot more fun. I'd rather play a Thief than an Assassin, but I'd take Assassin's Creed's jumping and climbing over the jumping puzzles in Thief any day of the week. Also, amusingly, I think the death toll in Assassin's Creed is still a fair amount lower than in Uncharted despite the latter being about a fortune hunter and not nominally a killer by trade.

If I could add one thing to the series, it might be to provide a bit of parity between the deaths of assassin targets and the nameless guards that you may kill on the way. The targets all get a benediction, specifically set up as the way your character shows respect for the dead. However, no such privilege is extended to the average guard, who presumably is actually a better person than most of your targets. There's already an option to loot bodies; I don't think showing respect for them would be all that hard and it would decrease the disconnect between the gameplay, characterization, and story.

Source: Loaned to me by my friend Ryan, thanks Ryan!

Celebrating the end of the Iraq War

Mixed feelings are the common response to the news that the United States has completed the terms of our treaty and withdrawn from Iraq. That is appropriate; there is substantial uncertainty about Iraq's future and there is a level of ongoing violence that belies the term peace.

However, I would argue that celebration is also appropriate. I'm glad that we were able to end ahead of schedule giving the recently deployed a chance to celebrate the holidays at their home. The withdrawal completes a process of de-escalation that first saw troops pulled out of Iraqi cities and then out of the country entirely. As one might expect, this process involved steady declines in the level of violence directly precipitated by the U.S. occupation. While there are still Americans in Iraq who will maintain our relationship with that country and at times be in harm's way, the withdrawal is no illusion; the change has been significant and I suspect any attempts to reverse it would be politically disastrous.

There are those that argue that while this may prove temporarily good news for us, it will come at Iraq's or ultimately our expense. I would counter with my second reason to celebrate: we chose to respect the will of the Iraqi people as expressed through their nascent, troubled, and yet still somewhat democratic institutions. To the right, you can see the parliamentary vote on the Status of Forces Agreement that set our deadline for departure, an agreement that had been negotiated under President Bush. The abstentions are certainly troubling, but I have seen no evidence that they, let alone the Sadrist-dominated no voters, favored a less restrictive agreement. After we returned sovereignty to the Iraqi government they are without question the competent authority under just war theory to determine whether America's involvement should continue. They decided it should not, at least not under conditions acceptable to the U.S. government. Arguments about whether we could achieve a better result by staying longer should only come into play after answering the question about whether we have the authority to stay.

Thus while there are many to mourn, an overabundance of regrets, and a widespread sentiment that the war was a mistake, I would argue that we should celebrate its end. The return home of our troops, the reduction of violence that we're participating in, and the triumph of treaty law in dictating the timeline are all outcomes worth celebrating.

As ever, I speak for myself and not my employer.

RSS feeds and social media

It's been a rough year for following social media in Google Reader. At some point, Facebook cut off friend feeds. More recently, the sharing features of Google Reader got moved over to Google Plus. As a result, I'm now reasonably good at generating shared entries and such but I do a very bad job of seeing what other people are posting.

So I could use Tweetdeck to follow Facebook in Twitter, but I'd likely need to separate my news accounts and friends account as unless I'm constantly checking, the former totally swamp the latter. However, even if I make regular use of Tweetdeck that still doesn't actually cover Google Plus. This isn't even to mention the LiveJournal updates, although that is now so rarely used I can easily get away with checking it once a day or so.

So, more social network-adept readers, any advice? Am I just going to have to check Facebook/Tweetdeck and Google Plus, all on top of using Reader? Is there someway I can pay these companies money just to let me read my friends content without having to use their sites? Also, are there any good tutorials for learning how to split twitter lists into social and news categories?

If you can help, your reward is that I'll be better able to read your content.